The Island...thrilling, intelligent and thought-provoking

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2007)

As we head towards the end of the first decade of the 21st Century it is worth taking a look back at the last say 100 years to see how far we've come. From a world without cures for even the most simple of diseases we are now finding ways of not just mending our bodies but actually replacing that damaged parts with new perfect organs or limbs. At the moment however it is only body parts, non-living items we are concerned with. We are still experimenting with idea of actually cloning a person. a human embryo. There are still issues of ethics to be dealt with. The Island then gives us fascinating, if a little unnerving insight, into what the future could hold for this new area of science and the hugely sensitive issue such developments could raise.
Set a little over 10 years into the future the film centers around an underground 'decontamination'facility run by the ruthless Dr.Merrik(Sean Bean on fine form as always). The inhabitants are a large ( and ever expanding) group of men and women who, the facility's staff would have them believe, the last survivors or a global contamination that makes living outside impossible. The 'survivors' are to are forced to remain underground living out their lives in a fairly routine way. The only way they can leave, so we are told, is by winning 'The Lottery' a draw which takes place weekly in which the lucky winners is allowed to leave and go to live on...you guessed it....The Island, the only uncontaminated place left on earth.
While most of the inhabitants, who are as a rule very simple people with simple lives, are happy to wait , one is becoming restless. Lincoln-6-Echo(Ewan McGregor) is convinced that something is not right, believes there is more going on than simply waiting to go to the Island and , despite Dr.Merrik's best efforts to convince him otherwise,decides to take the matter into his own hands, by doing the unthinkable, leaving the confines of the facility and going up top. In the process of doing so he learns the terrible truth.
The 'survivors' are in fact clones. In the time when this is set the rich have begun to follow a trend of paying to themselves cloned and what this facility provides are essentially insurance policies, whereby you pay a huge amount of money to have yourself cloned. This provides you with everything from new limbs and organs to a carrier for your baby.
As far as the customer is concerned, however, the clone remains in vegetative state for the duration of it's existence. And Merrik , since what he is doing breaks several laws and because of the huge profit he makes, intends to keep it that way.So when Lincoln and his friend Jordan-Two-Delta( Scarlett Johanssen)make a break for it and set out to find their donors and reveal the truth he will stop at nothing to prevent them from doing so.
This film has just about everything going for it. The cast is stellar. Ewan McGregor, it seems, can turn his hand to just about anything, be it a Jedi Master, a young Poet or a Clone. He portrays Lincoln's confusion and restlessness with ease as well as his fear when he learns the truth. Scarlett Johanssen has really been making her presence felt in Hollywood and this is no exception. As Jordan she is sweet and innocent but yet intelligent. Perfect. As I have a soft spot for Sean Bean I can't say a bad thing about him but he really plays the villain well. He is cold calculating and yet projects something else too...guilt perhaps or unsureness as to what he is doing? I'm not sure but it's there and I like it. A superb support cast of clones and facility personnel helps steer the film.
The actual premise of the film is highly original and very well maintained through-out. It is very believable because we are in a time where cloning is foremost among the issues being dealt with in Medicine circles as well as being debating for moral, ethical and other standpoints. It doesn't require a huge stretch of the imagination to imagine something similar to this occurring 10, 20 years down the line. It is a reality that we need to think about. We're not there yet but we are close.In this way it gets you thinking more than many movies can.
There as some thrilling chase scenes and intense emotional drama as Lincoln and Jordan begin to discover their human natures and come face to face with Lincoln's donor, Tom Lincoln, an adventurer type(also McGregor). All in all the film hits all the right spots and leaves an impression on you as it forces you to contemplate issues that effect us each individually and as a whole.
10/10 *****